


Turn and Face the Strange (Changes)

by Gairid



Category: Vampire Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 15:34:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8850463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gairid/pseuds/Gairid
Summary: SPOILERS FOR PLROA - Takes place within the PL - PLROA timeline.  In discussions about the new book, it came up that it would have been interesting to hear what Louis and Armand had to say about Louis leaving Trinity Gate to be with Lestat in France. A filler scene mostly, and follows canon as well as I could manage. Timeline may be skewed as I have only read the book once.





	

“You are not so cruel as you were in the old days.” Armand said. There was fugitive melancholy in his eyes but his voice was even.

“And you have dropped your deceptions, most especially the ones you told yourself. Come, Armand, will we rehash again all that we have spoken of over these past years?”

Armand stood silhouetted in the doorway, his head cocked as though listening for something pitched just out of his hearing. From the rooms beyond within this elegant place the sounds of revelry could be heard; the sounds could have been mistaken as joyous but there was an undercurrent of unease and the music, though beautiful, was also disturbing. Perhaps it was that which had caught Armand’s attention.

He crossed the elegant room and sat beside me. The lights were low as I preferred, the better to see the jeweled city laid out before us through the wide windows. “You give me too much credit. I hold many things close — deception has been a habit of centuries,” he said. 

I smiled a little. “So it has. I am grateful that you have dropped the practice between the two of us.”

Armand moved closer and I drew him in. He laid his head against my shoulder. “Frankly, I was quite surprised when you did not leave for France months ago.”

“So you have said more than once, though I noticed that you have never asked why.”

“Probably because I don’t want you to leave.”

I heard the unspoken _‘me’_ at the end of his declaration. It was not all that long ago that I would have taken such a statement as Armand being manipulative. In those days and in that time when we roamed the world together, I was always deeply suspicious of him and indeed, some of my suspicions were warranted. Some though, were not. I was drowning, yet even the fact that it was Armand who did what he could to keep me afloat did not stop me from taking out my rage and grief on him.

“You and that guilt,” he tutted, making no effort to hide that he was nosing around in my head. “You seriously need to drop that, you know? It was problematic, all of it, and I know that was on me.” He sighed and squirmed to face me, pulling me into a fierce kiss. “I will miss you, Louis. I knew the day would come at some point, but I had hoped for more time with you. Time like we’ve had these past years, time not freighted with the sorrow and the anger of the past weighing us down. I have learned more about you in this century than all the other years put together” He grinned suddenly. “You know, beyond your devastating looks, you’re pretty interesting.”

“You are too, once you drop the whole ‘I’m the boss of you’ routine. Why do you think I hide in here all the time? All the formality---really, it becomes tiresome.”

“You’re a snob, Louis. Lestat was right about that. And you hide in here because you don’t want to be bothered with Antoine,” he said wickedly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“Oh, of course you don’t. It’s funny how he says the same of you when pressed, yet you both regard each other with a very similar dubious air.”

“Be that as it may, I have decided I will not let you draw me into whatever conflict you imagine exists between Antoine and me.”

“Alright, then. If you don’t want to tell me that, then you will perhaps share why you have not gone to Lestat already?”

I considered the question…a very straightforward one from Armand who generally dances around the edges of things, looking at all the angles. Then again, he’d probably been doing just that since Lestat accepted the core and the crown, as it were. “Because I wanted him to understand what it’s like to be put on hold. I wanted to make him wait for me.”

“As you have waited for him.” Armand said without rancor.

“Petty and foolish.” I said uncomfortably.

“Nonsense. Do him good, won't it? That ego of his needs someone like you to keep it down to a manageable size. God knows no one else can. And no, I don’t want you to leave me, but change is coming one way or another and it’s more than just between you and I.”

“You will be in Paris and you will see me often. Of course you will come to Court – Lestat will insist and no doubt you will find yourself occupied when Daniel arrives.”

“No doubt,” he said, shifting again and angling his body to face me. “I was pleased that he and Marius arranged to come back to New York but I have no idea what to expect when they do.”

“As you said…change is coming one way or another and I am aware you were speaking with grave import, but you are speaking also with hope in your heart.”

“A snob _and_ an insufferable know-it-all. Really, Louis, I can’t think what I ever saw in you.”

“It’s the eyebrows,” I said blandly, “and the sooty lashes framing my jewel-like emerald eyes.”

He snorted. “Don’t forget the midnight veil of shining, lustrous hair. You know, once you've shaken the dust out of it.”

“But not so lustrous as your liquid amber eyes, my little Botticelli angel.”

“Certainly not! I’ll have you know that it was Marius who was so enamored of Sandro that he compared me to those angels. And I shall certainly use your words against you at some point. How would the Prince feel to know you have made light of his prose?”

“Oh, please," I said, unable to keep a smile from my face. "Lestat will always use his overblown prose and the collective ‘we’ will always roll our eyes when it is pointed in our direction. He is not so easily offended, you know, so you’ll need to do better than that if you think you need to dangle a sword over my head."

“And you wouldn’t change him for the world.” Armand’s unfeigned laughter gave me a warm feeling. Even now it was rare that he let down his guard so completely

“No, I wouldn’t. Not that such a thing would be possible.” 

“Very true,” he said, leaning against me again. “I shall ask, now. When will you leave?”

“Tomorrow evening.” 

“He’s still in France, you know.” 

I nodded. “I want a little time alone there in our old home. Time to think about what’s happened. What’s to come.” I felt a little inward shiver just thinking about it.

“You probably won’t believe me, but I understand. I understand all of it and as much as this feels like an ending, something in me tells me, it is just another change. I would never have thought you and I would come together in the way we have here.”

“So many things have changed. Why not the loss of all the old grudges, the clearing of old misunderstandings?”

“Why not?” he agreed. “Stay with me tonight in my chambers, would you, Louis?”

“I will,” I said against his ear just as someone appeared at the doorway—Sybele, I realized. 

“Armand, there is someone here who wishes to speak with you. Downstairs. Benji wanted to check with you,” she glanced at me. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Louis.”

“Never worry, _ma petite_ ” I assured her. “I have taken enough of Armand’s time this evening.” 

She smiled and place her hand on the arm Armand offered her and I followed them to the brightly lit salon.

FIN


End file.
